Observe:
At my placement there is block scheduling so each class is about 2 hours long. When I went to my placement, there were two labs happening at the same time. The teacher would separate the students into groups of 2-4 and would then split the class in half, the half to the left would do one lab and the class on the right would do the other. After about an hour the students would switch and do the other lab. This was possible because there was so much time in the class period that two labs could be completed in the same day. My cooperating teacher usually opens the lesson with the Title of the labs so that students can first grasp what they will be doing. She hands out the lab worksheets and reads over the directions with them. As she reads the directions aloud, she keeps a close eye on student body language and facial expressions to make sure everyone is understanding what they will be doing. After going over the directions she asks her students to get into the groups that she assigned.
Reflect:
The laboratories that were assigned were a "pill bug lab" and a "yeast lab." Students int he Pill Bug Lab were asked to create a stimulus for the pill bug (poking it with a pencil) and recording its reaction time (how long it remained "balled up" in a defensive position). This lab was very interesting because it gave the students a LIVE organism to watch and observe (along with poking it which they all seemed to enjoy). The information collected by each group was then combined together to see the relationships between each individual bug. What was also interesting about this lab was that after the information was collected, the students were asked to go deeper into the information, thinking of reasons why older, and bigger bugs remained curled up for LESS time than the smaller ones. It also asked the students to identify how the bugs were able to "ball up" so easily (this made connections with organism symmetry).
In the yeast laboratory, students were asked to look at yeast and determine whether they were living organisms or not. Looking at the "qualifications of living things" students observed yeast underneath a microscope and determined if they thought they were living or not. What was interesting about this laboratory was that students were activating their prior knowledge of Living Organisms and were applying it to Yeast. My cooperating teacher asked guiding questions to further quiz their prior knowledge, all questions which they answered correctly. At the end of the lab students were brought together in a mini debate about why they thought Yeast was a living or non living organism. This was a lot of fun to watch because when students come together with their own opinions, they stick by them! At the end of the debate, they came to a cooperative decision and realized how much they learned about Yeast and the characteristics of living things.
I think that these labs were EXTREMELY important when it comes to the NECAP because characteristics of living things is a major topic in biology. Without these characteristics, scientists would have no basis for grouping organisms. I liked that these labs built on each other. Students doing the yeast lab go to think about characteristics of living things, then when they went to the pill bug experiment (responding to a stimulus) they got to see a characteristic of living things "up-close and personal." When I teach, I also want to put a great emphasis on Characteristics of living things. I think it is a very important topic that will be very useful for students in future standardized tests, as well as life in general.
At my placement there is block scheduling so each class is about 2 hours long. When I went to my placement, there were two labs happening at the same time. The teacher would separate the students into groups of 2-4 and would then split the class in half, the half to the left would do one lab and the class on the right would do the other. After about an hour the students would switch and do the other lab. This was possible because there was so much time in the class period that two labs could be completed in the same day. My cooperating teacher usually opens the lesson with the Title of the labs so that students can first grasp what they will be doing. She hands out the lab worksheets and reads over the directions with them. As she reads the directions aloud, she keeps a close eye on student body language and facial expressions to make sure everyone is understanding what they will be doing. After going over the directions she asks her students to get into the groups that she assigned.
Reflect:
The laboratories that were assigned were a "pill bug lab" and a "yeast lab." Students int he Pill Bug Lab were asked to create a stimulus for the pill bug (poking it with a pencil) and recording its reaction time (how long it remained "balled up" in a defensive position). This lab was very interesting because it gave the students a LIVE organism to watch and observe (along with poking it which they all seemed to enjoy). The information collected by each group was then combined together to see the relationships between each individual bug. What was also interesting about this lab was that after the information was collected, the students were asked to go deeper into the information, thinking of reasons why older, and bigger bugs remained curled up for LESS time than the smaller ones. It also asked the students to identify how the bugs were able to "ball up" so easily (this made connections with organism symmetry).
In the yeast laboratory, students were asked to look at yeast and determine whether they were living organisms or not. Looking at the "qualifications of living things" students observed yeast underneath a microscope and determined if they thought they were living or not. What was interesting about this laboratory was that students were activating their prior knowledge of Living Organisms and were applying it to Yeast. My cooperating teacher asked guiding questions to further quiz their prior knowledge, all questions which they answered correctly. At the end of the lab students were brought together in a mini debate about why they thought Yeast was a living or non living organism. This was a lot of fun to watch because when students come together with their own opinions, they stick by them! At the end of the debate, they came to a cooperative decision and realized how much they learned about Yeast and the characteristics of living things.
I think that these labs were EXTREMELY important when it comes to the NECAP because characteristics of living things is a major topic in biology. Without these characteristics, scientists would have no basis for grouping organisms. I liked that these labs built on each other. Students doing the yeast lab go to think about characteristics of living things, then when they went to the pill bug experiment (responding to a stimulus) they got to see a characteristic of living things "up-close and personal." When I teach, I also want to put a great emphasis on Characteristics of living things. I think it is a very important topic that will be very useful for students in future standardized tests, as well as life in general.